Icaros Live! CD 2.28 (i386) released on Aminet

[Weaselrama]

Right off the bat, the download link on Aminet was broken but the link is there for:

http://vmwaros.blogspot.com/p/download.html

I don't have a spare PC to try this on so I tried it in VMware Fusion on my Macbook. It has boot options for screen resolution and I went with 1920 x 1080.

It looks great and uses Ken's Icons. I was tickled that it had DOpus and Protrekker with some included MODs along with some other familiar apps. I liked it but I have to say - and this is a personal bias that has nothing to do with anyone else's experience with this - it just wasn't the Amiga. I suppose once you start installing other Amiga 68k apps utilizing AmiBridge, the experience might well improve.

I could not get the installer to work with the virtual HD which shows up on the Bench after starting-up the Bench as "HD0:NDOS." At one point, I got it to install by choosing "use existing AROS partitions" which of course, didn't sound right, not without formatting. It began to copy files over but would stop and complain the drive was ejected OR it would throw checksum errors.

VMware provides an IDE drive which could be changed to SATA which the AROS installer also recognizes. The problem is the installer won't partition the drive. The default file system is SFS with the alternate choice of FFS-Intl. I tried both - no go.

At one point after several tries I got what appeared to be a full install, albeit with complaints about ejected drives. I chose the partition for the GRUB bootloader but upon reboot w/o the CD, it failed to boot, complaining it could not find the GRUB directory.

Given the obvious time they put into fitting all this on a 700mb CD image I could probably stick my neck out and declare it probably installs on real hardware just fine. I'll be curious to hear your feedback on installations on actual hardware to see whether grabbing an old PC might be worth the 50 or so bucks I'd likely spend on it.

Anyway - for AROS fans, this is no doubt a huge boon. I've already had the discussion on with others on FB this morning that this is the "only way" for Amiga to live on, that new HW (Vampire, etc.) is too expensive, blah, blah and I don't buy the argument. True, parts for classic hardware are going to dry up at some point but I think the new hardware will get cheaper with volume and time because it will be the obvious route to keep the 68k OS alive and kicking.

I suppose I'm a classic 68k Amiga custom chipset junkie and that certainly fuels my own bias(es).

Looking forward to your feedback. Enjoy!

EDIT: Description, from 2.28 to 2.2.8.

[Weaselrama]

I should mention that there is a VMware-based "pen drive" installation method but I hesitate to use it. I use pen drive to store my WHDLoad games on in my FS-UAE configuration but to build such a system on a pen drive with the slow data transfer times seems like it would be a waste of time.

I await the comments of other users who may already have tried such an installation to consider their results.

[AMIGASYSTEM]

Installation on Pendrive is not that slow, IcarOS includes many compact packages. However, I advise against installing on PenDrive because you may encounter conflicts when inserting a second or third Pendrive.

I suggest instead to install AROS on USB external HD or Dual-Boot with other system but this only if you are an expert, I enclose some videos that show how to install AROS on Pendrive or USB external HD via VMWare


Tutorial Video: Installation AROS x86 (Nightly Build) on external HD from VMWare
[ Show youtube player ]

[Weaselrama]

Originally Posted by AMIGASYSTEM

I suggest instead to install AROS on USB external HD or Dual-Boot with other system but this only if you are an expert, I enclose some videos that show how to install AROS on Pendrive or USB external HD via VMWare]

Thanks, I'll check them out. I've tried now with both a pendrive and with an external drive and the installation always fails with write-errors. I'm using VMware Fusion and it may not be compatible with VMware workstation (Windows) instructions. No luck so far, but I'll check out your video.

[AMIGASYSTEM]

I'm not sure where you found the problem.

I did a quick test by installing my AROS One on Pendrive and then ì started the Pendrive from my small "Acer Aspire One" that supports Cards Video, Audio and WiFi:

AROS One installation on Pendrive with VMWare (took 36 minutes, the Pendrive was old and slow), here's the video:

https://drive.google.com/open?id=1o_...1Y-xez5wVfqoMm


Starting AROS One from PenDrive on Acer Aspire One

https://drive.google.com/open?id=1HT...hQeqjj_BSDiSTH

[Weaselrama]

the problem is I'm not using VMWare on Windows. I'm using VMware Fusion on a 2019 Macbook Pro. Some of the basic device drivers the Mac serves to VMware aren't always compatible. I'll keep working on it as time permits.